


Don't forget

by Dirt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, klance, slight angst, they are mainly idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-09-10 17:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dirt/pseuds/Dirt
Summary: “You know what, screw you Lance!”“You already have.” Lance lightly replied and Keith looked like he was about to punch him.-Lance and Keith have a lot more history than the other paladins know.





	1. Chapter 1

When Lance was a kid he was obsessed with space. He thought the stars and planets were so cool and aliens were definitely real, he wouldn’t change his mind even if any one said otherwise. He even had glow in the dark stars stuck up on his bedroom ceiling. For years he was made fun of for being that weird space kid until he met another kid who was just as obsessed with aliens and space as he was.

-

“You know what, screw you Lance!”

“You already have.” Lance lightly replied and Keith looked like he was about to punch him.

They’d been arguing for over an hour now and it seemed that the longer it went on the more Lance could feel his anger and irritation at Keith rise. He’s pretty sure that the fight has started as one of their usual petty fights but somehow escalated and now this one felt a lot more real.He was annoyed and Lance knew when he got annoyed he often turned off the handy switch in your head that allowed people to think before they open their mouth, but why did he have to step lightly around Keith?

“Oh haha Lance, resorting to bad jokes again.” Keith said sarcastically and crossed his arms while rolling his eyes. Lance scowled and clenched his fists, normally he would have just laughed at a simple comment like that, it wasn’t even that hurtful, but Lance had reached the point where he couldn’t even remember what they were fighting about in the first place, and he really didn’t feel like being nice to him right now.

“Well at least I can make a joke, you couldn’t even think up of a bad knock knock joke.” Lance protested angrily which just made Keith smirk meanly, glad that he knew the comment had gotten to him.

“I’ll go cry about it at home then.” He replied, the smirk on his face just making Lance’s blood pressure rise.

“Shut up you smartass! You just think you're amazing don’t you, well you’re not cause guess what your hair is still stupid.” Lance said defensively.

“You sound like a jealous idiot, Lance.” Keith sighed.

“Why would I be jealous of you and you’re dumb shit haircut, and stop calling me an idiot!” Lance growled shooting Keith a glare.

“Are jokes about me hair the only ones you can make? And I only call you an idiot cause you are one, it’s not my fault you just barely passed the entrance exam.” Keith spat out. Lance froze, ok that one hurt, did he really think he was an idiot? He thought that he was the one person who didn’t.

Keith must have seen the hurt expression that flashed across Lance’s face because he dropped his arms and a look of regret crossed his face. But something inside Lance just broke and he pushed the hurt feeling down to replace it with anger.

“Oh fuck you man, you’re just as probably just as smart as me, the only reason you got in was probably cause you're close with the examiner.” Lance shouted defensively. So much for thinking about what to say, at this point he just wanted to get under the other boys skin.

“The hell!? Where did that even come from, I don’t even know the examiner. Why can’t you just stop being jealous of me for five seconds? You could say ‘hey nice job Keith.’ but instead you just be a dick about it!” He shouted, any regret he felt about the previous comment was gone.

“I’m not jealous of you, what you think you're that much better than me? Do you really think I’m that much of an idiot that I can’t catch up to you?!” Lance said as he started getting closer into Keith’s space. He knew he was twisting Keith’s words a bit to rile him up but he couldn’t deny that what Keith said still hurt him just enough to make him want to.

“Yeh maybe you are! You gonna go cry about it?” Keith replied but didn’t move and only glared as Lance jabbed his chest with a pointed finger.

“You’re the one who cries all the time like some weak loser.” He stated and then Lance felt his eyes widen as Keith grabbed two handfuls of the front of his shirt. Keith was fuming and Lance could nearly feel the glare he was giving him burning into his soul. Keith’s eyes flashed and he knew that the other boy was at the point of barely controlling his short fuse.

“You’re such a dick Lance, you know you actually annoy the hell out of me and I can’t stand your stupid jokes or how self centred you are, and how clingy you are.” Keith growled out in a low voice that nearly seemed threatening. Somewhere In the back of his mind Lance knew that Keith was only saying these things out of anger, but it still didn’t make the twinge of pain in his chest better. Still he wasn’t one to know when to end a fight when he really should.

“You’re not all sunshine to be around too you know, always trying to be so cool and mysterious when we both know you’re a giant nerd. Maybe for once in your life you could try not acting like such a loser and maybe people would like you! There is this thing called smiling you know.” Lance shouted back his voice rising, Keith just clenched his shirt harder.

“Fuck you, I actually hate you right now.” He hissed back at him.

“Well I hate you too!” Lance shouted. Keith shoved him away from him harshly and Lance fell to the ground.

“Fine, good, cause I don’t want to speak to you ever again.” Keith said angrily as Lance got himself up from the ground and dusted the non existent dust from his jeans.

He glared at Keith and in this moment felt nothing but hatred towards him. If Keith wanted things to end like this then that was fine with him.

“A win for me I’ll never have to hear your voice again.”

“So we’re over then, good riddance.”

“Whatever, I probably won’t even remember you in a year Keith, everything we did was just a waste of my time.” Lance was now just saying things out of pure spite and he knew it but the words still hung heavy in the air. ‘This had meant nothing to me,’ was implied, and this time Keith really did punch him square in the jaw knocking Lance back to the ground.

Then he turned around and began to leave without sparing Lance another glance.

“Idiot.” He muttered and left the room leaving Lance to hold his sore jaw.

-

Lance still saw Keith in the halls of his school. They both passed by each other sometimes without a word and other times with hissed insults at each other under their breaths. Lance wouldn’t ever admit to himself that might miss the other boy a small bit.

One month into the start of school at the garrison and Lance had already broken up with his boyfriend and his only real friend here. This left him with the realization that he really hadn’t tried to make any new friends and because of this he found himself without Keith and no one else to hang out with. Why was he even stupid enough to think Keith was all he was going to need?

Turning up to class with a bruised jaw though, was definitely a way of getting people’s attention.

“Hey man, you ok?” Lance looked up from his badly written notes to see a boy from his class sitting beside him with a worried expression on his face. The boy was a big guy with a yellow headband tied around his head, Lance had seen him around before but honestly had found him a bit intimidating and maybe had been a bit wary, but all Lance’s thoughts of that left as he looked into the face of a guy who was worried for him even though they had never spoken before.

“Huh?” Lance asked, confused for a second what the other boy was referring too when he remembered the massive purple bruise on one side of his jaw. How did Keith learn to throw a punch that hard in the first place? “Oh yeh, yeh I’m good I just tripped and whacked my face against the wall.” He replied with his prepared story, waving a hand lightly. Even if this boy seemed nice Lance really didn’t want anyone getting into any of his personal business.

“Been there buddy.” The boy said with a look of sympathy and Lance felt himself relax slightly. “You’re in my astrology class aren’t you?” Hunk asked and took the empty seat beside Lance, who was grateful that someone wanted to talk to him.

“Yep.” Lance nodded and the boy smiled.

“Yeh I’ve seen you hanging around with that Keith guy, you’re a cargo pilot right?” The boy asked cheerfully and Lance felt his jaw clench slightly at the mention of Keith’s name.

“Uh, well I’m working to be a fighter pilot and I don’t really know Keith he’s only in a few of my classes so we spoke sometimes, honestly he seems annoying.” Lance grumbled out the last part and felt himself going off topic. “But yeh, what do you do?”

“I’m an engineer, oh people call me Hunk by the way.” The boy, Hunk, said with a smile on his face kindly ignoring the fact that Lance nearly went on a rant about Keith, as he stuck his hand out for him to shake. Lance smiled back at him and found himself regretting that he hadn’t spoken to this guy sooner.

“Lance.” He said and shook his hand.

-

 

Lance woke up slowly with a big yawn, he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so tired. But it had been at the very least an interesting few weeks. From flying a space lion to waking up everyday on a floating space castle. Yeh, definitely interesting.

He stretched his arms above his head and thought back to his fading dream of being back at the garrison. Meeting Hunk had changed his life for the better he thought.

Lance got up and looked with a longing expression back to his bed, one of the worst things about being a paladin of voltron Lance was starting to realize, meant very little time to sleep in. He went over to where his clothes were laying on a chair and started to put them on, still feeling a little groggy. He had decided to skip coming to breakfast in his P.J’s lately because for some reason Shiro said it was ‘bad manners’ and Allura kept worrying that he wouldn’t be prepared for a sudden fight with the Galra, which he totally would be.

As he stepped out of his room to go get he bumped into the last Paladin he wanted to see today, or most days really. Keith.

He awkwardly moved out of his way and sent him a glare that was returned with just as much force.

“I see you didn’t get your beauty sleep.” Lance said to Keith.

“I see you’re still annoying.” Keith replied. Lance scowled but decided it was too early to start a fight with Keith, so he he turned around and started walking towards the dining room with Keith following behind him silently.

The bad thing about being in a castle in space with only 7 people and a few animals was that you were forced to interact with them. Which was hard for Lance as he had fully intended on forgetting about Keith years ago. When they first realised they were stuck together for a long time, it seemed like they were going to have to talk, but that didn’t mean it had to be friendly. But Lance made sure to pretend like he only knew Keith as a petty rival from the garrison and nothing more, call him salty but Lance was still a bit annoyed about their meeting again while trying to rescue Shiro, where Keith didn’t even remember him.

On this ship, Keith was nothing more then a guy they got stuck with and it seemed that Keith was in mutual agreement about Lance, and that was that. It was fine. Did not bother Lance at all. Not even a tiny bit.

Ok maybe a tiny bit.

They reached the dining room finally and Lance made sure to take the furthest seat away from Keith, who just rolled his eyes at him. He sat down beside Pidge who was tinkering with another one of her inventions.

“Good morning, ah good I see you're all here already.” Allura said cheerfully as she walked into the room, making everyone look up at her. Lance knew instantly that she had something planned, she just had that glint in her eye, and usually Allura’s plans ended up being extra training or something.

“You look like you have something planned princess.” Coran said lightheartedly and she nodded with a smile on her face, Lance could hear Hunk’s faint groan beside him. At least Hunk hated Allura’s training as much as he did, they could complain about it later.

“Yep, I thought that today would be a great day for some bonding exercises.” She said and Lance saw Shiro nod in approval. Pidge joined Lance and Hunk with their groaning, none of them were fond of any type of exercise.

“Oh don’t be like that, it’ll be good, we can get to know each other and hopefully it will help forming voltron easier.” Allura replied to their groans.

“It would be beneficial for voltron.” Shiro reasoned with them, Lance rolled his eyes, Shiro you traitor. They all seemed to come to a silent agreement though as Allura smiled and clasped her hands together.

“Alright! When you’re done meet me in the lounge.” She said and turned around to head out with Coran following after her.

-

“Now that everyone is finally here,” Allura said looking pointedly at Lance who may or may not have took his time eating breakfast. “Let’s begin.”

“Um, what things did you have in mind?” Shiro asked hesitantly when he couldn’t spot the head band things they used last time.

“It’s going to be a lot simpler than last time.” She replied and Lance could see Pidge huff a sigh of relief beside him. As much as she had opened up to them Lance knew that she probably didn’t like people still invading her private business, even if they were all bonded by magical lions.

“I’ll start off.” Allura began as she sat down with the paladins and Coran on the sofas. Lance had to admit that this was better than training with the robot gladiators most days.

“My name is Allura, I’m from Altea and I like purple flowers.” She stated and a few of the paladins looked confused.

“Uh yeh? We knew most of that.” Pidge pointed out and Allura smiled over at her.  
“Yes but we’ll just start off like this and build up, because I know you don’t all know each other as well as others, I thought it might be nice to properly introduce ourselves, so who’s next?” She asked and looked around the group and Lance may have just fallen a bit harder for her and her good intentions. Beside him Hunk hesitantly raised his hand and she smiled at him to speak.

“Uhm, I’m Hunk, hi, I’m from… Earth I guess and I like sunflowers.” He said and smiled. Lance suddenly felt like he was at some sort of AA (Aliens anonymous) meeting.

“I’m Coran, I’m also from Altea and I like blue flowers.”

“I’m Shiro, I’m from Earth and I like daisies.” Shiro said and elbowed Keith beside him who looked like he’s really rather not be here. Keith pouted but took his turn.

“I’m Keith, Earth and eh I guess I like roses?” He said and Lance couldn’t help but huff a quiet laugh that Keith caught onto. Of course Keith like something cheesy like roses.

“Shut up Lance.” Keith scowled, his ears going a bit red, but before Lance could retort Pidge took her turn.

“I’m Pidge, from earth and I like those venus flytrap things, even if they aren’t flowers, they are still pretty cool.” She said and Hunk nodded in agreement, then looked to Lance expectantly. He sat up a bit and looked to the group.

“I’m Lance, also from Earth and I like bluebells.” He said. Allura smiled from her seat on the sofa.

“Ok, good start, I didn’t mean for you to say your favorite flowers I just meant something you like but it’s fine. Shall we continue?”

-

They found it easier to tell things about themselves as Allura’s exercise continued, and soon found themselves getting pretty comfy on the sofa’s in the lounge and the ground beside them, at one point Coran had gone off and come back with several cups of hot liquid that Lance wasn’t sure about at first but after a sip he decided they weren’t so bad, compared to previous drinks anyway. This whole set up had then started to feel very cosy.

Lance had also learned a lot more about the people currently living in the castle. He found out that Coran used to help Allura play pranks as a kid, that Pidge owned several house plants including a venus flytrap, that Hunk could sing pretty well and that Shiro did in fact wear eyeliner from time to time. A habit that he had apparently kept from his days where he was a bit too into punk music Keith inputted helpfully. Lance didn’t really learn anything new about Keith that he didn’t already know, not that he cared anyway.

All in all Lance was actually having a pretty good time getting to know the others.

“So how do you and Keith know each other, you two seem to be close?” Allura asked Shiro curiously and he smiled at her, Lance looked over to them, this was something he didn’t actually know himself.

“Well we met at the garrison actually, I would help out in some of the fighter pilot classes and we got to talking.” Shiro smiled and looked over to Keith who was smiling slightly too. “I remember when I first met him he had just gotten over some breakup and was super mopey and grumpy for ages.” Shiro laughed, obviously trying to get Keith back for the one remark about punk music but he was surprised when he turned to Keith to see him look slightly annoyed. Of course Lance understood why, but he was curious to if Keith had ever told Shiro about them.

“Shiro,” Keith began with irritation in his voice but was interrupted by Allura.

“It’s alright Keith, we’re getting to know each other. Was it a bad breakup?” Allura asked carefully and Lance saw Keith try to look anywhere but him, he finally settled for staring down at his hands.

“It...it doesn't matter now, he was an idiot anyway.” Keith grumbled. Lance felt a slight pang in his chest at the comment, he tried to ignore it. What did he care what Keith said anyway, that was all in the past. The atmosphere of the room grew slightly awkward.

“Well I remember once Lance tried to ask a girl in our class out but he tripped while doing it and get this he looked at her on the ground and said ‘I must have fallen for you pretty hard.’ and she walked away without a word.” Hunk said and started laughing, several of the others joined him to laugh at Lances misfortune.

“Hunk, why do you keep telling people that story?” Lance groaned and dragged a palm down his face in defeat. Hunk just shrugged as he continued to laugh. Lance pouted.

“Ok but I remember when Lance dragged me out once and tried to ask this girl out but it turns out she didn’t know who he was and kept getting his name wrong. She called you Larry for ages.” Pidge giggled remembering the story, everyone else joining in the laughter.

“Hey, don’t join Hunk!” Lance protested but couldn’t help smiling slightly at the amused faces, he didn’t really mind being the butt of a joke if it made others laugh.

This started several more stories of Lance and his various failures from Hunk and Pidge. Everyone was laughing and Lance laughed along remembering back to all those times.

“Wow Lance it seems you had an interesting time at the Garrison.” Shiro joked and Lance rolled his eyes with a smile.

“You always were really bad at flirting.” Keith said, giggling beside Shiro. Both he and Lance froze slightly when they realised what he said, but it was too late Allura had picked up on it.

“Oh? I didn’t know you two knew each other?” Allura questioned and all eyes landed to Lance and Keith. Lance gulped, this is not something he wanted to talk about.

“Uhh we didn’t?”

“Only in class.”

They both said and Allura looked slightly disappointed at the boring answer. For once Lance didn’t mind letting her down.

“Wait but I remember you two used to hang around each other before we began talking Lance.” Hunk added not so helpfully. Lance wanted to glare at him but knew that would only make him look more suspicious.

“What? I didn’t know you two used to be friend Keith?” Shiro asked and looked over to Keith who averted his eyes.

“Well we weren't really friends.” Keith replied, his voice with an edge of coldness to it and Lance glared slightly at him. The rest all looked very interested in this conversation.

“Wait so you guys used to be on speaking terms once and not just as rivals or whatever? What happened?” Pidge, ever the curious one asked them, not realising the atmosphere between Keith and Lance was growing tenser. Lance finally managed to catch Keith's gaze, he held trying to look for an out to a conversation that they probably weren't prepared for, but Lance had a feeling they were going to be backed into a corner one way or another. If they left it now Allura would give out that paladins shouldn’t have secrets between them. Keith finally tore his gaze away and scowled at the ground.

“Um we might have known each other a bit.” Lance started hesitantly.

“How long did you know each other, how did you meet?” Allura asked sweetly, ignoring the tenseness in the room. She was invested in this and so it seemed the others were as they looked at the two rivals of group, curious now to see if there was more to it than pettiness.

“Hmm since we were 14? 13? I’m not really sure.” Lance replied casually, pretending like admitting to knowing someone for years was an everyday thing. He avoided the others eyes but could sense their surprise.

“You’ve known each other for nearly five years and you only mention it now!” Pidge said and her voice raised.  
“I didn’t even known if you two had spoken at all before this whole thing.” Shiro input and looked over to Keith who was now glaring harshly at the ground. This was one of the points where Lance realised he couldn’t ignore his problems forever, especially not a problem with as much history as him and Keith.

“I did mention him once or twice I’m pretty sure.” Keith said awkwardly and now Lance felt himself glaring. He knew what was coming and he didn’t like it.

“Really? I must have forgotten.” Shiro said looking thoughtful and Keith laughed awkwardly.

“I don’t think you did Shiro,” Keith began slowly and he avoided everyone's gazes. “Remember that idiot boyfriend I mentioned? Yeh..” He trailed of awkwardly as he felt everyone grow more silent. Until Hunk piped up.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, you’re telling me you two, who I’ve only seen be annoying towards each other, went out for five years?” Hunk looked confused and surprised. “And you never told me Lance?”

“No, we didn’t go out for five years, we started going out when we were 15 and broke up at the start of the garrison, so around 17?” Lance said thoughtfully trying to figure out the maths in his head.

“It was 17.” Keith said and Lance looked up at him, he wore an unreadable expression.

“Yeh,” Lance said awkwardly then bitterly he said, “Surprised you even remembered.” Keith glared at him.

The room was suddenly tense and the others looked awkward as they watched Lance and Keith glare at each other. A part of Lance felt they deserved to feel awkward in this situation as they had dug it up. He would have been perfectly fine ignoring it for ever. Allura coughed awkwardly.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did it end?” Allura asked as Hunk and Shiro were trying to signal her not to. They were used to Lance and Keith’s squabbles but this felt different, this felt like 1 and a half years worth of anger and hurt boiling up.

“Badly.” Keith replied shortly without turning to look at Allura who had just now realize she may have made a mistake addressing this too soon. “What do you mean you’re surprised I remember.” Keith said to him and Lance glared harder.

“Don’t give me that, you’re the one who pretended not to even remember me when we rescued Shiro, what was with the congratulating me on being a fighter pilot?” Lance replied.

“I was just surprised you were able to make it take far. Also why do you even care if I remember you or not? I thought we agreed not to speak to each other again.” Keith snapped back at him and Lance felt each word sting him.

“Maybe I cared cause you disappeared for nearly a whole year, Keith!” He shouted as his emotions overflowed. “Who does that? You could have told at least one person.”

“What were you worried about me?” Keith teased meanly and Lance clenched his fist and glare.

“Of course I was worried, Keith!” He shouted at him and Keith froze looking taken aback by his reply. “I’ve known you for years, of course I was worried, you’re so stupid, and you call me the idiot.” Lance said softer and Keith opened his mouth to reply but he was stopped.

“You know what, I don’t want to do this.” Lance said and got up from his spot on the sofa and turned to leave. He didn’t want to fight more in front of the others. As he left he felt the beginnings of tears form on his eyes as he thought of how much he denied being worried or even thinking of him. He was an idiot to think he could just forget.

Maybe he did miss Keith.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished finally, enjoy. :) It's unedited btw, I will be editing later and probably making it longer.

Lance, Pidge and Hunk were currently staring down the facility where they had just spotted Shiro. As in the Shiro that had been lost to the flight mission one year ago.

 Then he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, a person racing across the desert to reach Shiro. Lance squinted his eyes trying to get a better look at the person.

 “Who’s that?”

 A sudden flash of something red and black and Lance felt his eyes widen in recognition. No way, it was Keith! After a year of just being gone, here he was, racing towards the tent where Shiro was held. Suddenly a million emotions started to well up inside his chest.

 When Keith had been kicked out of the garrison Lance told himself he didn’t care, that it was probably for the best anyway. He wouldn’t have to see Keith’s glare in the hallways or ignore him during classes, he could just forget about him and that was that. And that’s what Lance did while Keith was gone, he forgot. Well he tried very hard to anyway.

 “I’d recognise that mullet anywhere, it’s Keith” Lance shouted and began to run down the slope after him. There was no way Keith was going to show him up by rescuing Shiro first.

 

-

 

Lance felt tired, and not the sleepy kind of tired but the weary kind, the kind that he could feel in his very bones. He was drained.

 Confronting Keith was the last thing he had wanted to do, especially in front of the other paladins. It dragged up a lot of suppressed emotions that he had been doing so well at suffocating up til now.  Stupid Keith. He still felt angry about the whole situation but he couldn’t get rid of the lingering feeling of sadness.

 It was dumb really, he knew he should be over him by now, it had been years. So..why was he feeling like they had broken up all over again?

 ‘Maybe because you miss him?’ He found himself thinking, which was a lie. Him? Miss Keith? Yeh right…

 Lance walked all the way to his room and flopped down on his bed with a sigh. What a hole he had dug himself into. Rolling over onto his back he let out a groan and buried his face in his hands. He just couldn’t seem to get the image of Keith face out of his head when he had left the room. He looked angry sure, but there was something else there, Lance was sure of it. Or maybe he was just thinking about all this way too much.

 A knock at the door stirred Lance from these thoughts.

 ‘Please don’t be Keith, please don’t be Keith’ Lance begged silently to himself. Keith may be the first person in his thoughts right now, but he was definitely the last person he wanted to see.

 “Uhh Lance, hey, can I come in?” Hunk’s worried voice drifted from outside the door. Lance let out a quiet sigh of relief and mumbled a ‘yes’ behind his still covered face. Hunk walked in but Lance didn’t make any move to acknowledge him until he felt a dip in his bed.

 They both stayed silent for a few minutes, Hunk no doubt trying to find the right thing to say to him that didn’t seem to intrusive.

 “So… do you want to talk?” Hunk finally asked. Lance sighed again, taking his hands off his face to look at Hunk’s neutral expression. The thing is, he really didn’t want to talk about any of this, he wanted to pretend nothing happened and go back to ignoring the facts.

 “Not really.” He replied and removed his gaze from Hunk.

 “Really? You’re just going to ignore this? Cause I dunno man, it seems like you should have said something earlier.” Hunk said moving around slightly to get more comfy where he was sitting, meaning he was going to get Lance to talk or it would be an awkward long time of silence. Dammit Hunk.

 “Well it doesn’t really make a difference, does it? And by the way Keith never said anything either.” Lance huffed.

 “Yeh but all this time I thought you were just being petty and hating on Keith for no reason,” Lance was about to say something about the ‘petty’ comment, but Hunk just raised an eyebrow and Lance shut his mouth. “Also I kinda get why you didn’t say anything to the team but like, you could’ve at least said something to me…” Hunk trailed off quietly and, oh shit, he looked sad and now Lance was feeling super guilty, crap. He hadn’t meant to hurt Hunk.

 “I-I… It’s just, I wanted to pretend it never happened.” Lance sighed, deciding if he could say this to anyone it was Hunk, who nodded at him to continue. “I didn’t really think I’d ever need to talk to him again, how was I supposed to know we were going to be flying space lions. I didn’t mean to lie to you Hunk, but I didn’t want a big thing about it, you know?”

 Hunk looked at him and the frown on his face eased a bit as he contemplated what he had just said. Then he looked over to him again.

 “Would you mind talking about it now?” He asked hesitantly and Lance felt himself bite his lip anxiously, memories he had tried so hard to forget resurfacing, Hunk must have seen his worried expression because he put his hands up in a slight panic and started rambling. “I-I mean only if you want to dude! No pressure, I’m not going to say anything to anyone!”

 Lance smiled slightly at his friend. “It’s ok, as long as it’s you buddy, just maybe not everything about it right now.” He said with a shaky smile but the other boy just smiled brightly.

 “Well just tell me about when you guys were younger, I’m kind of curious to know what Keith was like as an early teen.” Lance felt himself laugh slightly.

 “Hah, he was a giant nerd, and I guess so was I… it’s probably why we clicked. I remember he used to be so into conspiracy theories, always wanting to go on adventures to find mothman or aliens or something.” Lance began to ramble but he couldn’t help himself as he let himself think back to fond memories he hadn’t allowed himself to think of in so long. And just before he started to think that maybe recounting old memories was a bad idea, Hunk jumped in.

 “Wow, that doesn’t really seem like him.”

 “Have you ever tried to talk to him about that sorta stuff Hunk?”

 “Hmm I guess not.” Hunk thought with a finger to his chin. Oh no, he was thinking about doing it wasn’t he? Well it’s not Lances fault if Hunk gets himself caught in an hour long conversation about bigfoot. Lance smirked to himself.

 “Let me tell you about the time he tried to build his own treehouse in the forest.”

 

-

 

After what felt like hours of Hunk and Lance talking about Keith as a kid and then some how ending up talking about their own memories at the garrison, Hunk finally got up to leave, remembering something he was supposed to be helping Pidge with. Lance couldn’t help the smile on his face as he lay back down on his bed. Him and Hunk  hadn’t talked like that in a long while, he missed it.

 It was sorta nice to reminisce. Somewhere along the line of Lance’s bitterness, he had forgotten all the good things that made up Keith in the first place.

Had he really forgotten all the time they spent? Lance bit his lip thinking. No he had refused to acknowledge them after they had broken up. Bottled up everything and packed all the memories away in a cardboard box at the back of his mind. That’s just what he does, he supposes.

 See, Lance had never cried over Keith, not even once since they broke up. Cause if he did then that meant Keith won right? Well that’s what he was thinking back then. Instead he went and let his anger take over, until the anger just faded to nothing really and now here he was back to thinking about Keith like he tried so long not to.

 Lance sighed and rolled over to face the wall. Maybe he was a bit of an idiot.

 But he couldn’t just let this thing with Keith affect the team. He should be over it by now anyway, it was an age old spat. Lance slapped his hands to his face and shook his head, Time to get over his past and at least try to be friends with Keith.

 The thought of being friends with Keith stung him a bit and he wasn’t quite sure why.

 He ignored the feeling and stood up, it would be about time for dinner now right? Time to face what he is sure would be an awkward dinner, even if Keith turned up or not.

 He made his way to the dining room and was surprised to see that everyone was there talking quietly already. They looked up when he entered, Shiro smiled that encouraging smile at him and Lance was instantly suspicious. He glanced over to Keith but the other boy was staring at his food with his mouth downturned into an annoyed frown.

 Lance took his seat opposite Keith who still avoided looking at him, he decided to just ignore that and began eating the questionable food goo that he was honestly getting very sick of by now. The others began talking again and Lance felt the tension he didn’t even realize was in his shoulders ease. Yeh, he could do this.

 Not that he had any idea how to start a conversation after earlier, so, uh, maybe he’d do it later?

 Allura coughed politely bringing everyone's attention to her. She had a weird look on her face, not exactly nervous but maybe more awkward? Lance had a bad feeling about this.

 “I know this is not my place, but for the sake of voltron this issue must be addressed.” She began and Shiro gave her a warning glance but she chose to ignore it. “Lance, Keith, I feel it would be best to sort out what happened between you, soon. Of course we are all here to help.”

 Everyone at the table seemed to stiffen at this, remembering earlier. Lance also felt himself freeze up. She wanted them to sort it out right now?! He knows he said he was prepared but not right now.

 “No offense Allura but this is really none of your business.” Keith said and Lance was surprised at the amount of venom in his voice. He had his arms crossed and his trademark scowl on his face. Allura looked slightly taken aback as well. Lance felt himself sink into his chair trying to disappear, he really didn’t want to be a part of any of this.

 “N-no, of course, it’s your and Lance’s problem to sort out, but I just meant-” She began but was interrupted by Keith.

 “It’s not a problem Allura, it’s been fine up until now, we’ve had no problems forming voltron, so why can’t we just forget about it.” He huffed out.

 “I mean it wouldn’t help to try…” Lance found himself mumbling and what was he doing! Why was he talking! Keith turned his angry glare to him but it didn’t bother him. He was to used to his glares by now.

 “Seriously? Just cause Allura says something and now you want to talk.” Keith said, Lance’s brow furrowed in confusion.

 “What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked defensively and by now everyone else looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here. Keith threw his arms up in frustration.

 “Well you never wanted to before!”

 “Oh yeah cause you're so easy to talk to.” Lance scoffed and felt himself glare at Keith, who’s face was starting to morph into that expression that Lance knew meant he was on the brink of exploding. Maybe he should tone it back a little if he wanted to get anywhere.

 “Look, well we might as well try now that it’s out in the open.” Lance paused to sigh.

 “Well… what if I don’t want to.” Keith grunted out, Lance once again felt that pain in his chest from earlier. Did Keith really hate him that much that he didn’t even want to be friends. Sure, he understood it ended badly, but after talking with Hunk, Lance realised he didn’t want to forget their old memories, he could never hate Keith fully because of those. Keith must have spotted Lance’s hurt expression because his anger seemed to immediately dissipate.  

 “No, no i-i didn’t mean like-” He began but Lance interrupted him, honestly he did not want to hear any of this.

 “No, stop, I get it.” Lance said holding up a hand to stop Keith, who know looked confused.

 "What?”

 “I get it, you hate me, whatever. You hate me everything that happened is just not even worth talking about, so easy to forget about, right? Cause it was all just a waste of pointless fucking time!” Lance’s felt he voice rise with every word, letting the anger overcome him. Keith for the most part looked shocked, so did the rest at the table who Lance had forgotten about until now.

 “A waste of time...You’ve said that before. I thought you wanted to fix things! Not bring up old arguments!” Keith gathered himself and shouted back at him.

 “You walked out on me!”

 “And you never even went after me!” They both shouted and glared at each other, breathing heavily. Had Keith been expecting him to run after him that day? Lance didn’t get a chance to reply because suddenly Shiro was standing up placing his hands on the table, all eyes on him.

 “Alright enough! You two are going to stay away from each other, think this out like normally people, then have a normal conversation about this! Because this can’t go on, it’s already affecting the team.” Shiro said sternly and looked both of them down, there was no room for objection when Shiro is using his leader voice. Lance looked over to Hunk and Pidge who looked like they really didn’t want to be there and Pidge looked upset. Guilt instantly struck Lance, he didn’t mean to bring his friends into this.

 Lance nodded at Shiro and left the room with his eyes downcast.

 

-

 

Lance was 13 when he first met Keith, a new boy who had just moved into his class from who knows where, Lance hadn’t been listening to that part as he had been too busy staring at the new boy from the back of the classroom.

 The new boy had short black hair and a glare that could rival the teacher when she got angry at the class, but his face softened once he began talking to the other kids in his class. When he caught Lance’s staring and smiled slightly, Lance felt the tips of his ears go red and quickly averted his gaze.

 You see Lance might have talked to him that first day but being a lanky 13 year old who hadn’t quite grown into their limbs yet and had a face full of mild spots (Lance swore they were worse than they actually were),he found himself lacking the confidence he used to have as a kid.

 So it wasn’t until the end of that week that Lance had his first words with the new boy that seemed to have all the confidence he only wished he could have.

 He was walking down the halls of the near empty school, ready to go home when he spotted the new boy putting his things into his bag. The other boy noticed him and gave him half a smile, making Lance stumble slightly giving an awkward smile back and that’s when he spotted it.

 “No way! Is that a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?” Lance exclaimed and felt a smile stretch onto his face, before he realised oh crap, his inner space nerd was showing. He cringed, remembering all the years he was made fun of for his obsession about space, something he was still obsessed with now but tried to hide it. Keith’s eyes widened at Lance’s remark.

 “You’ve read it?” He asked, and wow this was the first time Lance had heard him talk. He was about to deny reading it when he saw the hopeful smile on Keith's face and for a second he decided that maybe Keith would be different to everyone else.

 “Yeh, I’ve read the whole series, it’s one of my favorites.” Lance replied with less enthusiasm than before but Keith didn’t seem to notice and his smile grew at Lance’s remark.

 “Me too! I don’t actually know anyone else that’s read it before.” Keith said and Lance smiled. He had a feeling that this was the start of something good.

 “I’m Lance, by the way.”

 “I’m Keith.”

 

-

 

Lance found himself sitting alone in the main deck staring into space reminiscing. Something that he had found himself doing all day. But he couldn’t help it, the feelings had been dug up now and the more he thought back on the past the more he couldn’t deny it anymore. He really missed Keith, he missed his friend who would stay up all night with him talking about theories on the latest show they were watching, he missed the strange impulsive adventures Keith would bring him on and even missed the way Keith would yell at him for making a bad joke. He just missed him.

Around this time Lance had missed the footsteps coming up behind him and didn’t realise someone was there until Hunk sat right down beside him, making him nearly have a heart attack.

 "Wow a little warning next time buddy.” Lance said, clutching his chest with his hand. Hunk smiled apologetically but couldn’t help the snort of laughter at his dramatics.

 "Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” He said and Lance smiled and moved to sit closer to his friend, they both stared at the open window into space. A few minutes of comfortable silence before Hunk broke it.

 “What are you thinking about?” He asked without looking at Lance, but he knew what Hunk was doing. He was giving him a chance to let anything on his mind out and Lance appreciated that. He bit his lip wondering should he tell Hunk or not, then he sighed and looked back at the window.

 “I miss him Hunk.” Lance said and wow it felt a lot better to say it out loud. Hunk knew who he was talking about.

 “Yeh?” He replied, giving him a chance to continue.

 “Yeh. He was just…just my first everything you know?” Lance said vaguely and could hear the wistful tone in his voice.

 “Really first everything? Even-”

 “Yes Hunk.” Lance interrupted him before he could finish feeling his ears go red, Hunk was probably smirking right now. That was not what he had meant to imply.

 “I mean he was that first person I ever felt a true connection with, he was the first person I fell in love with and that’s just not something you can forget, as much as I tried too. And now I’m not even sure if he missed me at all.” Lance looked at the ground remembering the earlier fights. He felt Hunk get up and place a hand on his shoulder.

 “I think it’s time you guys had your talk buddy.” He smiled down at him and then turned to leave. Lance supposed he was right. It was time to have this long overdue talk that had probably been coming for a while now. He hated when Hunk was right.

 He got up a few minutes later and stretched before going off to find Keith.

 Or as it turns out, Keith finding him.

 Lance bumped into him on the way to his room and looked up a bit shocked to see Keith looking nervous.

 “I-can we talk?” Keith asked hesitantly and Lance paused before nodding his head.

 “We can’t keep fighting Lance. It’s bad for the team and honestly? I don’t want to be fighting you, you were a good friend and I miss that. So can we just put all that break up stuff in the past?” Keith said and Lance sucked a breath in when he heard Keith missed him too. But the boy was right, they needed to let it go.

 “Yeh ok, I kinda hate this fighting too, even if it did take me a while to realise.” Lance laughed awkwardly and Keith smiled back looking truly happy.

 “So friends?” He said and if Lance’s heart didn’t break just a little bit then he would be lying. But friends was probably the best he could ask for right now. He nodded and Keith’s smile grew.

 “Cool.” He said and nodded to himself as they walked in silence down to their rooms. The silence still felt a bit awkward and Lance couldn’t help saying things in awkward situations.

 “What were we even fighting about back then?” Lance asked and laughed even though he honestly couldn’t remember. By the looks of it, Keith didn’t know either.

 “I don’t remember. We were just younger and stupider back then, it was probably just something stupid.” He sighed but Lance had to agree with him. They were young and stupid back then, thankfully they’re not like that now…

 The two walked together to the rooms but just before they got there, the alarms went off, Lance sighed. Great.

 “Paladins! To your lions!”

 

-

 

It had been a long fight against a galra fleet and by the time it was over they were all tired and Lance had been hurt. He was rushed into a healing pod straight away and that was all he could remember.

 Until now when he found himself falling out of the pod and into the arms of somebody.

 “Lance!” He looked up to that familiar voice and was surprised to see Keith holding him looking relieved and worried at the same time.

 “Keith?” He asked confused but the other boy just smiled and brought him into a hug.

 “I’m so glad your ok.” Keith mumbled into his neck. “I missed you.” Lance froze at Keith's words, surely he didn’t mean in the way Lance missed him.

 “Wow Keith, how long was I out.” He joked but Keith just pulled away and stared into his face with an intense expression on his face.Lance felt the smile falling off his face.

 “No I miss you, I miss us, I just want things to go back to the way they used to be before it got all messed up. But I know you probably don’t feel the same after all this time but I just think I should say it anyway.” Keith told him looking him right in the eyes with his hands firmly on his shoulders as if Lance was just going to run away at that. This is what he had only hoped to hear.

 “No I-I miss you too Keith. So much.” He said, surprised at how small his voice sounded. Keith smiled brightly at him. 

“So can we try again. I know it’s not going to be the same for a while but we can at least try?” Keith asked and Lance nodded and then leaned in to do something he hadn’t done in years and was only just now realising he had missed desperately.

 He kissed him.

 

-

  
  


“Come on, we’re nearly there!”

“Ugh I hate hills.”

Two boys climb up a grassy hill at dusk until the boy at the front finally stops making the other boy look up to see him standing at the top of the hill staring up at the sky. The other boy follows his gaze and is taken aback by the view.

Above them is a great view of the dark skies, speckled with stars highlighted by the moon and making them look like sparkles. The colours of the last of the day fading out on the horizon.The boys breath is taken away as he looks in awe at a sight he has seen before but never quite like this.

“Wow, Keith it’s amazing.” The boy says as he comes to sit beside the other boy who is now sitting at the top of the hill staring at the sky.

“I know right?” Keith says and turns to face Lance who is staring in wonderment with and expression that brings a fond smile to Keith’s face. “I found it while looking for aliens the other day.” He laughs as the other boy gives him a look.

The 15 year old boys who have grown closer since they first met each other stare at the sky and both think similar things.

“One day we’re going to be up there Keith. I’m going to be a fighter pilot and join the garrison and go to space and your coming with me. It’s going to be amazing.” Lance says with determination and Keith never even for a second doubts that that is exactly what the other boy will do, and so will he.

They look at the sky and talk and laugh and somewhere along the way they find themselves holding hands but neither will mention it or their feelings for a while yet.

The two boys who are just beginning to learn about love but don’t know it yet, stare at the sky and Keith who doesn’t really believe in destiny thinks that one day, they will definitely go to space together one way or another.

  
He can’t wait.

 

 

My tumblr - [space-pal](https://space-pal.tumblr.com/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'll be editing this later as the ending I felt was a bit rushed and there was more I wanted to add but I wanted to post it so yeh. Also you should check out my other fics, most are good I promise ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if there is any mistakes, Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a kudos or whatever.


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